Walmart Senior Buying Delegation Visits Korea: "Beloved in Daily Life" K-Beauty Takes Top Market Share in the U.S.

KOTRA Hosts Walmart Marketplace and Sourcing Event
Positive Response to K-Beauty's Rapid Development, Pricing, and Functionality
From Skincare to Color Cosmetics, Hair and Body Care
Meetings Held with 57 Korean Consumer Goods Companies

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced on January 22 that it had invited a delegation of 12 buyers from Walmart, the world's largest retailer, to its headquarters on January 21 to host the "Walmart Marketplace·Sourcing Plaza."

On the 20th, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) held a meeting at its headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, with Walmart executives visiting Korea to discuss expanding consumer exports and entering the U.S. distribution network. KOTRA President Kyung-sung Kang (fifth from the left) and KOTRA officials, along with five Walmart executives (starting from the sixth from the left), posed for a commemorative photo after the meeting. KOTRA

The event drew significant attention, with six Walmart vice presidents and key purchasing executives in attendance. The Marketplace is Walmart's open market platform, where sellers can freely list and sell their products. Sourcing refers to the process by which retailers discover products or suppliers to offer in their stores.

According to KOTRA, Walmart showed great interest in Korean cosmetics and other K-beauty products during the event. Last year, Korean cosmetics exports increased by 12.3% year-on-year, reaching 11.4 billion dollars, surpassing 10 billion dollars in exports for the second consecutive year and establishing themselves as a major export driver. This trend has attracted global corporate interest, and Walmart's response reflects this momentum.

The recent strong growth of Korean cosmetics in the U.S. market is also seen as a contributing factor. Since 2024, Korean cosmetics have overtaken French products to become the number one in market share among U.S. imports. Building on this, last year’s exports of Korean cosmetics to the U.S. reached 2.19 billion dollars, a 15.1% increase from the previous year, surpassing the 2.02 billion dollars exported to China. The United States has thus become the largest export market for Korean cosmetics.

KOTRA has been seeking collaboration with Walmart to leverage domestic and international distribution networks and turn the popularity of K-beauty into export growth. Walmart, for its part, has actively pursued cooperation, viewing the K-beauty boom in the United States as a potential growth engine for its beauty division.

At this event, Walmart, with KOTRA’s support, held one-on-one business-to-business (B2B) meetings with 57 carefully selected Korean companies, after thoroughly reviewing their corporate and product information in advance. To increase the likelihood of successful deals, a webinar on joining Walmart’s online marketplace was also held in advance, attended by over 200 Korean companies. Walmart plans to first test consumer response in its online store before expanding selected products to its offline stores.

Building on this round of consultations, KOTRA plans to establish a long-term cooperation framework with Walmart to support more Korean companies in entering Walmart’s distribution network. Both parties have agreed to create a systematic support structure to supply products to Walmart’s offline stores across the United States, based on the performance achieved in the online marketplace.

KOTRA President Kyung-sung Kang, who met with the Walmart delegation, stated, "K-beauty is loved by consumers in their daily lives in the world’s largest market, the United States. We will actively support Korean companies in expanding their presence in the U.S. market by cooperating with major distribution networks like Walmart and help boost exports by leveraging these global sales channels."